Across Divides: Recent Episodes
Across Divides
A series of conversations and creative reflections about civil society and community work: their contribution to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland’s shared challenges and current and future collaboration on solutions.
Contributors on the podcast bridge many divides. The introductory episode features prominent voices from our island’s enormous diaspora, looking back towards the island and discussing their unique perspectives.
Guests throughout the series are drawn from those active or supporting the community and voluntary sector as they explore their innovations and contributions.
Listeners will hear stories of how communities are stepping up to meet shared challenges such as out-migration from rural communities, digital poverty, youth mental health, and integration for new migrants to the Island. Voices from multiple traditions, backgrounds and identities reflect on their all-island work in social enterprise development, Covid recovery, addressing the Climate and Biodiversity crisis, and much more.
In times of crisis, women have often carried significant burdens that are not well recognised. In this episode, we look at the role of women in community and peacebuilding, and the development of policy guided by lived experience. We discuss systemic, historical and intersectional discrimination against women. Lived experiences of women during the pandemic were researched as part of the feminist recovery plan which proposes new opportunities to address a whole society change. This episode concludes with a reading from poet Annemarie Ni Churreain.
Guests
Rachel Powell, women’s sector lobbyist with the Women’s Resource and Development Agency and chair of the Women’s Policy Group for Northern Ireland, who recently published the feminist recovery plan for Covid-19. She is on the board of directors of the Washington Ireland Program and recently advised the NI government on an expert panel for a gender equality strategy. Annemarie Ni Churreain, a poet from the Donegal Gaeltacht. Her poetry has been shortlisted for the Shine Strong Award for best first collection in Ireland and for the 2018 Julie Suk Award in the USA. Many of her poems inhabit parallel worlds, suggesting dual ways of experiencing people, places and events, often evoking the mystery of ‘in between’ places. Annemarie Ní Churreáin
Coumilah Manjoo is originally from Mauritius and lived in England, Ireland, France before working in Northern Ireland for the past 12 years. She studied social sciences and a LLM in Human Rights, Her work has fostered Intercultural dialogue in the voluntary sector with grassroots organisations. She is also a daughter, sister, and mother of three. The power within | Just Fair
Links
Feminist Recovery Plan
Belfast Multi-Cultural Association - Home | Facebook
In this discussion of social justice and collaboration, we will look at ways in which global citizenship can help address all-island challenges. In particular, we examine development education, now more commonly known as global citizenship education, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The discussion also looks at ways that an individual’s learning journey can be transformed into wider societal change.
Guests
Salome Mbugua is a researcher, gender equality activist and human rights advocate. She is the founder and former CEO of AkiDwA, the migrant women’s group, with over twenty years of experience working with underrepresented groups.
Frank Geary is the Director of the Irish Development Education Association, using a variety of tools to engage the Irish public in development education and foster global citizenship.
Bayan Smith is the public engagement officer at Children in Crossfire, who have been responding to the rights and needs of children caught in the crossfire of poverty, injustice and inequality.
Karen Jeffers is a freelance facilitator and consultant in the charities sector in global citizenship education. After five years working in Latin America in conflict and post-conflict settings, she returned to Ireland in 2014 and established the Irish branch of the international human rights organisation, Peace Brigades International. In 2020 she also co-founded Síolta Chroi an organisation based in County Monaghan that ‘envisions a more connected world where ecosystems are restored and thriving. Humans are working in cooperation with wider nature and one another’.
Digital poverty exists in both rural and urban communities across the island, reducing access to jobs, education and social interaction. This episode looks at developing skills and access to the digital world across generations in both social and economic contexts. We look at the supports needed for the scaling up of current efforts and opportunities to address fragmentation through all-island collaborations.
Guests
Stef Mckillop is the Digital Inclusion Officer at Supporting Communities, whose Go On NI program has been running for ten years.
Stephen Dallas is Director of the Bytes project, using youth work and technology to work with vulnerable young people in Northern Ireland for two decades.
Tracey Keogh is a founder of Grow Remote, making remote work possible in 144 communities across Ireland.
Rural communities can be vibrant places but also face challenges of connectivity, access to services and resources, and higher incidence of domestic violence and out-migration to name a few. This episode looks at overcoming some of the barriers faced by rural communities across the island, and includes a discussion on the new common charter for cooperation within and between these islands, North, South and East and West.
Guests
Kate Clifford is the Director of Rural Community Network, a regional voluntary membership organisation supporting communities across Northern Ireland.
Tara Farrell is the Deputy CEO of Longford Women’s Link, which aims to link women with resources to help improve and change their own and their families’ lives providing a knock on transformative effect on the local community.
Emma Shaw is a community activist, researcher and blogger who has said, “I can think of nothing better than being the conduit for giving voice to Loyalist women”. Her research focuses on underachievement in education, especially among low-income students.
Links
Her Loyal Voice blog
See Her Elected
New common charter for cooperation within and between these islands
The need for action on climate change is urgent, and risks leaving communities behind. This episode deals with a fair and equitable transition to carbon neutrality that empowers people across the island to have a meaningful say and accrue local development benefits. We discuss principles of deliberative democracy and community wealth building as tools for a just transition, and addressing complex problems through simple solutions.
Guests
Rebekah McCabe is the Northern Ireland engagement lead at Involve.org.ukthe UK's public participation charity. Her focus is on developing the awareness, understanding, and use of participatory and deliberative tools across government and civil society.
Khalil Moran is the project coordinator at the democratic workplace in Wicklow. They are studying for a PhD funded by the Irish Research Council looking at community wealth building in Ireland. Wicklow Democratic School
Suzie Cahn has more than 20 years of experience in community development, education and project management across a wide range of sectors. She previously worked with the TASC’s (Think Tank for Action on Social Change)’ Climate Justice Centre (TASC Climate Justice) managing the People's Transition pilot projects. She is currently directing the iCommunity project with NICVA and the Wheel. The Wheel.
Links
Centre for Local Economic Strategies
The Democracy Collaborative
TASC People's Transition Phibsborough Report
The People's Transition Report for Ardara - Publications
The People's Transition: Community-led Development for Climate Justice
FEPS TASC - Talking Green - The Irish Survey
Adapting to and mitigating the effects of the climate crisis carries a need for rapid change that has the potential to disrupt livelihoods. How can communities be engaged in a fair and equitable manner while our society transitions to a post-carbon future?
In this episode we look at the just transition as an opportunity rather than a burden, overcoming land use conflicts, and integrating eco-literacy in our education systems. We examine ways that community needs and priorities can be met alongside climate goals, and the need for those offering top down supports to adapt to the all-island community-led nature of solutions that can meet this enormous challenge.
Guests
Shane Campbell is the CEO of the Irish Central Border Area Network, who recently started a project based on the principles of The People’s Transition model.
Aoife Kirk is the coordinator of Connecting Communities with Peatlands, a project funded by the Just Transition Fund in the midlands in partnership with the Community Wetlands Forum and Irish Rural Link.
Morgan O’Toole is a regional development officer at Cooperation Ireland, responsible for the All-Island Schools for Climate Action program.
This episode deals with examples of grassroots and networked responses to crises of biodiversity and food production across the island. We look at democratising knowledge through citizen science, educating and empowering communities, and recognising the value of traditional knowledge.
Guests
Karin Dubsky is the Coordinator of Coastwatch, an educational and environmental network of NGOs and Universities across Europe.
Shay Daly is a member of the Carlingford Lough Community and a volunteer with Love Your Lough. He is part of the local regional coordination of CoastWatch.
Miriam Turley is the growing resilience project officer works at Social Farms and Gardens, a community development charity that specialises in community growing spaces.
It is widely agreed that the nature of the biodiversity crisis necessitates an all-island response. In this episode, we look at the ways that communities can be enabled to tackle this crisis through collaborative approaches.
We explore the intersection of ecology with archaeology, heritage, and sense of place, and the value of knowledge gathering and sharing. As we move through shifting normals, with each new generation seeing the ecosystem conditions in which they grew up as ‘normal’, we explore how people’s awareness can change as they get involved in local biodiversity projects.
Guests
Dr Una Fitzpatrick is a senior ecologist at the National Biodiversity Data Centre. She is responsible for the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan.
Mark Horton is the All Ireland Director of The Rivers Trust and chairperson of Ballinderry Rivers Trust.
Shirley Clerkin is the heritage officer at Monaghan County Council. An environmental scientist, she studied law before working in the NGO sector including the Irish Wildlife Trust and An Taisce. County Heritage Officer - Monaghan County Council | LinkedIn
Links
Source to Tap Project
Centre for Environmental Data and Recording NI
About Us - Monaghan Heritage
The mental health crisis has been highlighted by the pandemic but it has many root causes that pre-date Covid-19. The Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998, but the legacy of the troubles is still felt in the mental health epidemic across the island. In this episode, we pick apart the shared cognitive load of transgenerational trauma and the critical distinction between mental health and mental illness. We look at the need for a proactive approach to mental health and the gaps that can be filled by collective civil society action.
Guests
Siobhan O’Neill is the Mental Health Champion for Northern Ireland. She is a professor at University of Ulster and specialist in transgenerational trauma.
Peter McBride is a post-conflict mental health specialist. Formerly Group Chief Executive of Inspire Wellbeing, one of Ireland's foremost mental health and learning disability organisations. He stepped down from this role in 2019 and has been working since then as an independent consultant with a variety of organisations and senior individuals. In 2020/2021 Peter spent almost a year as The Director of The Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies in Keene, New Hampshire, USA returning to Northern Ireland in 202l. Peter McBride - Principal Consultant - PMcB | LinkedIn. Morgan Shuttleworth is president of the Secondary Schools Union NI, an organisation set up during the pandemic that prioritises mental health in its work.[Text Wrapping Break]
Links
NI Mental Health Strategy 2021-2031
OUR Generation Project
The social economy can act as a bridge across barriers for people at distance from the labour market. In this episode, we look at the need for social enterprises to be embedded in communities providing local employment whilst delivering financial profit. Social enterprises are increasingly recognised as creating such opportunities by themselves and in collaboration with the wider world of business, especially as they look towards operating at larger scales.
Guests
Maeve Monaghan: CEO of Now Group, a social enterprise that supports people with disabilities to gain access to employment and training.
Rosemary Kunene: founder of Dignity Partnership, a social enterprise that promotes self-employment and provides support for people who are or have been in the Direct Provision System in Ireland. Martin Ward: general manager of Bounce Back Recycling, a social enterprise that provides opportunities for members of the Travelling community facing barriers to employment.
Links
Community Foundation for Ireland
Jam card - Just A Minute
Social Value Act Northern Ireland
In this episode we explore the meaning of social enterprise as a business for social good. We look at community ownership, the involvement of young people, and the role of social enterprise in developing an all-island economy. Knowledge sharing between organisations and jurisdictions is key in building the potential of social enterprise, with learning taking place between Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and further afield. Crucially, we look at the reasons why now is the moment for the social economy, especially as part of the recovery from Covid-19.
Guests
Dr Andrew Forde is the principal officer for the development and implementation of Our Rural Future, Ireland’s National Rural Development Policy 2021 – 2025 and the National Social Enterprise Policy for Ireland, 2019 – 2022. He Chairs the National Social Enterprise Policy Implementation Group and is the Irish government’s representative on the European Commission Expert Group on the Social Economy (GECES).
Chris Gordon is the CEO and founder of the Irish Social Enterprise Network and the former director of Social Enterprise NI. He is an adjunct professor at Trinity College Dublin and sits on the National Social Enterprise Policy Implementation Group.
Colin Jess is the director of Social Enterprise NI. He previously worked in banking for 30 years and now sits on the council of the NI chamber of commerce.
Adrian Bird has worked in community regeneration for over 20 years. He is the director and was a founding member of Resurgam Trust, a social enterprise based in Lisburn. He also chairs Lisburn PSP, an organisation that is rooted in community safety and transformation.
Links
Youth Ambassador for Social Enterprise Northern Ireland
The first episode in this series looks at the role of the arts, language and culture as a vibrant part of civil society. We discuss their role in addressing the legacy of conflict and contemporary challenges across the island. Our guests talk about the arts as a platform for storytelling and critical thinking, and a catalyst for change in wider society.
Guests
Paula McFettridge is the artistic director at Kabosh Theatre, an independent theatre company in Northern Ireland that is known for addressing the legacy of conflict.
Linda Ervine MBE is a language rights activist from East Belfast. She is the project leader of the Turas Irish language project at East Belfast Mission, which aims to connect people from protestant communities to their own history with the Irish language.
Hilary Copeland is the director of Fighting Words, an organisation providing free programmes and mentoring in creative writing and related arts to children, young adults and adults with additional needs. She has also been director of the Irish Writers Centre in Dublin.
A series of conversations and creative reflections about civil society and community work: their contribution to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland’s shared challenges and current and future collaboration on solutions.
Contributors on the podcast bridge many divides. Guests throughout the series are drawn from those active or supporting the community and voluntary sector as they explore their innovations and contributions.
Listeners will hear stories of how communities are stepping up to meet shared challenges such as out-migration from rural communities, digital poverty, youth mental health, and integration for new migrants to the Island. Voices from multiple traditions, backgrounds and identities reflect on their all-island work in social enterprise development, Covid recovery, addressing the Climate and Biodiversity crisis, and much more.